Tuesday 15 May
We took the advice of the harbourmaster in Lauwersoog to leave at 8.30, to give us enough ebbing tide to get us out into the open sea. He also warned us that there are new restrictions on the areas in which you could sail - blocking off one obvious route east. We looked up on the Navionics chart on the iPad, but the restrictions were poorly defined. (In practice, other boats seemed to be sailing and fishing in parts that appeared to be restricted on that chart.)
As we left, a large dredger was heading for the lock, but it filled it completely, so we moored up and waited, not for long, though, before the lock was turned round for us. We were able to sail up the channel, amongst many fishing boats, some returning home, some still fishing. There are many complicated channels through the mud banks here, and the buoyage, though excellent, is confusing. A few tacks, some of them over bits marked on the chart as drying (but all within the buoyed channel) took us out into the open sea. There was a swell, but otherwise no big waves. At this point the wind died, and we had to motor for a bit, but we took the opportunity to try out the sextant.
The wind was whistling with speeds above 30kts at times. It was a good day for a bike ride to explore Borkum. There is a small holiday town about 5 miles from the harbour, connected by a little train. The rest of the island is sand dunes, with some fields and plenty of holiday cottages and bike paths everywhere.
Ascension Day - himmelfahrt (possibly) in German is a holiday, so most people take it as a long weekend. Expect crowds on the islands, we were warned. We set off with a light westerly wind, but after the gales the previous day, we expected some rough sea. We got out into the channel leading to the Ems past Borkum, and the sea steadily rose to waves of at least 3m. It was uncomfortable, but Alshira coped well, and we were able to sail, mostly close hauled, right out from the island, and past the offshore reefs. Finally we were able to bear away to point towards Nordeney, but the wind was too light to make decent progress, and we had to motor-sail. The seas were still large, so it was uncomfortable and pretty unpleasant. A German coastguard boat approached and radioed us to ask lots of questions about where we had been and so on - all very polite and friendly. We heard them talking to all the other boats out, in turn. Eventually we got into the Schuchtgat channel into Nordeney. The seas were confused and rough, but as we rounded the island, all became calmer than it had been all day. We motored into the harbour, found one of the only free places, and moored up.
This was a rest day, so we did the shopping and got the bikes out. We rode through the town - a mish-mash of spa town and rather ordinary hotels and houses, and then along the excellent bike paths as far as they would let us towards the east end of the island. We went up the lighthouse, a fairly ordinary brick structure, but with 250 steps to the top, and a super view. The sun came out and it really started to feel like summer. We had intended to leave the following day to Helgoland, but received a text from Colin Kennedy on his trip back to the UK with his new Sirius, Layla, that he was going to get to Nordeney on Saturday, so we stayed an extra day to meet him.
We got the bikes out again, to ride to the middle of the island, and then walk through the dunes. It was shorts and tee shirt weather apart from a brief and relatively warm shower.
Rather than bash into the forecast NE wind, we decided to try one of the watt routes inside the islands, to go the length of Nordeney, to the tiny island of Baltrum. We left 2 hours before HW, and sailed the first half before having to put the engine on, and drop the sail for the narrow drying section, marked with very frequent withies. The least depth we recorded was 1.7 m. We motored into Baltrum harbour, and moored up to a pontoon. There were a few motor boats, and a couple of Dutch-style sailing boats. A huge queue of people were waiting for the ferry at the end of their long weekend holiday. The island is traffic-free and extremely quiet. We walked through a reasonable proportion of it. We paid the harbourmaster who is also the air traffic controller for the tiny airfield! The vegetation on and behind the dunes was much more lush and varied than Nordeney. We dried out, as expected in the late afternoon, but must have sunk into the sand or mud, because we didn't really settle firmly.
The watt route to Langeoog was a bit more worrying, because it is shallower and there is really no alternative - all the books advise against trying to get out between the islands there. We checked with the harbourmaster/air traffic controller and he thought is would be ok about one hour before HW, so we left half an hour before that to be safe. Again, the way was marked with very frequent withies, and we got through with a least depth about 10 cm below the keel. Langeoog is a larger island, and a larger harbour, most of which has silted up. We had a look round the rather dull town in the afternoon, which is a good bike ride from the harbour.
We had a couple of rides into the town to shop in the morning, and rode to the far end of the island in the afternoon. The sun was out, the sand was warm, the sea was glitteringly blue, seals and lots of assorted seabirds were on the sandbanks. The island is divided quite rigidly into a northern zone of sand dunes, mostly out of bounds, and a southern zone of drained marsh, also mostly out of bounds. There are some fields in between, and even a sizeable wood between the harbour and the town at the western end. Our bike path was mostly along the boundary between the zones. We saw three hares, two males trying to mate with a female, while she tried to run away from us.
This looked to be a good day for the jump to Cuxhaven, although the wind all week is exactly in the wrong direction, so we steeled ourselves for a long bash by engine. We asked the harbourmaster if there was any problem in leaving the harbour, or sailing between the islands at low water - no, it should be fine if the waves are not too big, he said. We left two hours before low water and nearly went aground in the marina, but survived that. However, the channel between Langeoog and Baltrum had a strong tide running out, and surprisingly steep waves being blown into the shallowest part. We bumped the bottom and took a wave over the boat and frightened ourselves silly, but came through unscathed. That bit had been possible under sail, but then we turned into the wind, and the tides were such that we could not spend time tacking, so the engine came on for a tedious 58 mile passage into Cuxhaven, the last part in the Elbe has a very strong tide - we recorded over 9 knots. However, it was warm and sunny.
In the night, the wind got up and the pontoon and boats in the Amerika Hafen marina all bucked and rolled with lots of groaning and crashing. We got up and put a snubber on the bow line which quietened some of the noise, but it was still a disturbed night.
We left quite early for the long motor along the canal. It was hot and sunny, so we largely left Jakob in charge and sat in the sun or did small jobs on the boat, just altering Jakob's course when necessary. You have to stop when 3 red lights show on the big gantries spaced along the banks. In previous transits of the canal, this has not happened, but this time it did. We slowed right down in one of the stopping places, and three large ships came past.
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